But the post went to an employee who belonged to a Han worker who didn’t even have an engineering degree. At the time, Kerim was a frequent attender. It seemed like the premises of a factory (I would later find out that it was a remodelled police compound), but I didn’t yet have a handle on just how big it was. After that, the classes on theory would begin. In this way, our short-term memory became both our greatest ally and our worst enemy. Gulbahar Haitiwaji knew that China would not be happy about her book describing nearly… Founded in 2015, Hong Kong Free Press is a non-profit, impartial, English-language newspaper – run by journalists and completely independent. A little quick maths: I’ve counted 16 cell groups, including mine, each with 12 bunks, full up … that made for almost 200 detainees at Baijiantan. I imagined my mother, getting on in years, dying alone in her village in the northern mountains. They still tried to meet your eyes in the hallway. These camps are to China what the Gulag was to the USSR. Translated by Edward Gauvin. For three years, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a woman belonging to the Turkish-speaking and Muslim Uyghur minority, lived through hell in Chinese re-education camps. The Uyghurs are a Turkish-speaking Muslim ethnic group who inhabit Xinjiang. Death lurked in every corner. Swagata Banerjee. The trip would only take a few weeks. I couldn’t even think any more. This was no school. The teacher was always watching us, and slapped us every chance she got. It was November 2016, and I had been on unpaid leave from the company since I left. When it did, our legs began to prickle all over with pins and needles. And now, after reviewing my case, a judge had decided that no, in actual fact, I was innocent. Are we done here?” Then one of them said: “No, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, we’re not done.”. By Ibtissem Guenfoud and Guy Davies. You can get used to anything, even horror. At lunar new year, when the boss handed out the annual bonuses, the red envelopes given to Uighur workers contained less than those given to our colleagues who belonged to China’s dominant ethnic group, the Han. Over time, our conversations dwindled. She obeyed, ashen-faced, then sat down again. The book Rescapee du Goulag Chinois ( Survivor of the Chinese Gulag ), written by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a French resident of Uighur origin who was imprisoned and sent to a re-education camp, and coauthored by French journalist Rozenn Morgat, is pictured in Paris on Monday. I barely heard his words. Once he was settled there, our two girls and I would join him. After the phone call, my head was buzzing with questions as I looked around the quiet living room of our apartment in Boulogne. She kept her Chinese passport to at times return home for holidays, and didn’t feel like a political refugee because she had “no interest in political work”. Bits of my soul shattered and broke off. The man had no answers for me. We recited a kind of pledge of allegiance to China: “Thank you to our great country. It was a face I knew as well as my own – those full cheeks, that slender nose. I never did. What options do you have left? Gulbahar Jalilova, a citizen of Kazakhstan, spent fifteen months in one of China’s concentration camps for ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. Uighur community members in Turkey hold banners as they join a protest against China in Istanbul on Feb 26. Every day, I saw new faces, zombie-like, with bags under the eyes. Back in 2016, her life changed dramatically. AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from wars and conflicts to politics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. In her book, Gulbahar Haitiwaji recalled the 'interrogations, torture, hunger, brainwashing, and forced sterilizations she experienced or witnessed' in the camps. He had the right qualifications and the seniority. At first, I couldn’t make sense of what he was calling about. The occasion was one of the demonstrations organised by the French branch of the World Uighur Congress, which represents Uighurs in exile and speaks out against Chinese repression in Xinjiang. Gulbahar Haitiwaji had lived in France for ten years. To Uighurs, that flag symbolises the region’s independence movement. Why should I come back for some paperwork? You must come to Karamay in person.” I gave in. Left! Eleven hours a day, the world was reduced to this room. Since 2017, more than a million Uyghurs have been deported there. Did they really think they were going to break us with a few pages of propaganda? Rescapée du Goulag Chinois (Survivor of the Chinese Gulag), a book by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, an Uyghur detained by communist authorities as an alleged terrorist, details her 32-month ordeal of cold-iron shackles, interrogation and brainwashing sessions in one of China’s notorious internment camps in Xinjiang. ", Protest sketches by local artist not distributed in Hong Kong over security law fears, Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 9, Survey shows Hongkongers oppose changes to Liberal Studies subject as gov’t endorses new name, Patriots only please: How Beijing secured Hong Kong’s legislature from any danger of democratic infiltration, Covid-19: BioNTech vaccinations to resume on Monday, Hong Kong reports 13 infections, UK auction house Fellows selling 'luxury 89.6' watch gifted to China's Tiananmen Massacre troops, Mystery lawyer appears in court for Hong Kong activist Andy Li, but family still don't know where he is, Helena Wong 'voted for gov't motions': Judiciary reveals how Hong Kong democrat got bail under security law, Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic. The teacher made her read it out loud to us. I was exhausted, and my firm resolve to resist was on permanent hold. Haitiwaji had been living in France for a decade when her former employer, a Chinese oil company, asked her in November 2016 to return home to deal with some formalities it said were linked to her pension rights. The Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center north of Kashgar, Xinjiang, believed to be a re-education facility. All she’d done was shut her eyes. Called to return to China under a false pretense, she was thrown in jail and then sent to a … Gulbahar Haitiwaji had lived in France for ten years. This could last half an hour, or just as often a whole hour, or even more. We would review our endlessly repeated lessons one last time. Two hundred women torn from their families. After leaving my belongings at the front desk, I was led to a narrow, soulless room: the interrogation room. Support HKFP  |  Code of Ethics  |  Error/typo? |  Contact Us  |  Newsletter  |  Annual & Transparency Report. “Think I don’t see you praying? But the ferocity with which Beijing has lashed out at the 54-year-old author exceeded her worst expectations. Had my sister been notified, or Kerim and Gulhumar? Photo: AFP. In reality, it was tantamount to military training. ... ["Survivor of a Chinese Gulag"] Gulbahar … Gulbahar Haitiwaji lives in France and belongs to China’s Uighur minority, a predominantly Muslim community from the northwestern province of Xinjiang. Anyone who set foot outside their home could be arrested for no reason at all. The event marked a turning point in the recent history of the region. When a hand viciously pushed clippers across my skull, and other hands snatched away the tufts of hair that fell on my shoulders, I shut my eyes, blurred with tears, thinking my end was near,” Haitiwaji said in her book, “Rescapee du Goulag Chinois” (“Survivor of the Chinese Gulag”), co-authored with Le Figaro journalist Rozenn Morgat and published in French on January 13 by Editions des … How even to begin the story of what I went through in Xinjiang? These were known as “transformation through education” camps. Since leaving Xinjiang, I’d only grown less interested. The teacher was always watching us, and slapped us every chance she got. In the office with its flaking walls sat the accountant, a sour-voiced Han, and his secretary, hunched behind a screen. She obeyed, ashen-faced, then sat down again. Our days were punctuated by the screech of whistles on waking, at mealtime, at bedtime. Then one of the officers shoved a photo under my nose. ‘Survivor of the Chinese Gulag’ describes Gulbahar Haitiwaji’s ordeal during a trip to Xinjiang from her home in France. Soon after, all the Uighurs were transferred out of the central office and moved to the outskirts of town. The sheer number of guards and other female prisoners we passed as we were moved around led me to believe this camp was massive. Her name is Gulbahar Haitiwaji and she is the first Uyghur woman survivor of Chinese re-education camps who dares to speak out. This was called “physical education”. Now free and back home in France, Haitiwaji has written a book with the French journalist Rozenn Morgat about her experiences entitled "Rescapée du Goulag Chinois" (Survivor of the Chinese Gulag), an English translation of which is to be published in the U.S. by the end of this year. In the office with its flaking walls sat the accountant, a sour-voiced Han, and his secretary, hunched behind a screen. “Think I don’t see you praying? My husband, Kerim, had left Xinjiang in 2002 to look for work. Photo of the book 'Rescapee du Goulag Chinois' (Survivor of the Chinese Gulag), written by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a French resident of Uighur origin who was imprisoned and sent to a re-education camp in China AFP I don’t know why she was at that demonstration.”, I kept repeating, “I don’t know, I don’t know what she was doing there, she wasn’t doing anything wrong, I swear! Who knew I was being held here? A slow, painful descent into death, or submission. This “school” was in Baijiantan, a district on the outskirts of Karamay. If you play at submission, if you feign losing your psychological power struggle against the police, then at least, despite it all, you hang on to the shard of lucidity that reminds you who you are. At this time of year, Karamay city was in the grip of a brutal winter. It was a re-education camp, with military rules, and a clear desire to break us. It took away the memories and thoughts that bind us to life. I was thinking about all the times I had asserted my innocence, all those nights I had tossed and turned on my bunk, enraged that no one would believe me. “They did us a favour, they made Uighurs famous. I didn’t believe a word of what I was saying to them. After three harrowing years in Chinese re-education camps, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uighur woman who had been lured back to China from France only to be. For the next two years, I was systematically dehumanised, humiliated and brainwashed, Last modified on Fri 2 Apr 2021 15.46 BST. By turns, beneath the wary eye of the camp leaders, we would recite the communist stew we’d been served up. This photograph taken on March 1, 2021 in Paris shows the book “Rescapee du Goulag Chinois” (Survivor of the Chinese Gulag), written by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a French resident of Uighur origin who was imprisoned and sent to a re-education camp, co-authored with Le Figaro journalist Rozenn Morgat and published by Editions des Equateurs. But the ferocity with which Beijing has lashed out at … The party has invested too much in the “new silk road”, the infrastructure project designed to link China to Europe via central Asia, of which our region is an important axis. (AP pic) PARIS: Gulbahar Haitiwaji knew that China … You could tell the new arrivals from their distraught faces. She did not return for nearly three years. Some names have been changed. It was even more politicised and biased than the teaching at Chinese universities. In short, Xinjiang without Uighurs. To go to the showers, the bathroom, the classroom, or the canteen, we were escorted down a series of endless fluorescent-lit hallways. Then in Norway. We discussed the reasons I left for France, my jobs at a bakery and a cafeteria in the business district of Paris, La Défense. One thing was for sure: everything here was new. After a few days, I understood what people meant by “brainwashing”. An Uyghur woman who was induced back to Beijing from France just to be detained recounted her distressing experience in the 're-education' camps back in 2016. The quiet hum of the heater, the poorly cleaned whiteboard, the pallid lighting: these set the scene. But the ferocity with which Beijing has lashed out at the 54-year-old author exceeded her worst expectations. No one can fight against themselves for ever. Chained by the ankles, she suffered from hunger and fear, and was forced to sit through a mock trial at which she was sentenced to seven years of “re-education”. Two Han soldiers relentlessly kept time as we marched up and down the room. Her husband had come to France first, as a political refugee to escape ethnic discrimination. Gulbahar Haitiwaji spent almost three years trapped in Xinjiang. “In that case, I’d like to grant power of attorney,” I said. Why now?”. This is an edited extract from Rescapée du Goulag Chinois (Survivor of the Chinese Gulag) by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, co-authored with Rozenn Morgat and published by Editions des Equateurs Posted in Culture , Diaspora , Politics Bookmark the permalink . All I remember is that photo, their aggressive questions, and my futile replies. This photograph taken on March 1, 2021 in Paris shows the book “Rescapee du Goulag Chinois” (Survivor of the Chinese Gulag), written by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a French resident of Uighur origin who was imprisoned and sent to a re-education camp, co-authored with Le Figaro journalist Rozenn Morgat and published by Editions des Equateurs. A few months later, when a senior position came up, Kerim applied. “All I want is for those camps to close and to help make sure that happens. Gulbahar Haitiwaji, an Uyghur refugee recounted the 'interrogations, torture, & forced sterilizations' she experienced in the Chinese 're-education camps' ... ("Survivor of the Chinese Gulag"), co-authored by Le Figaro journalist Rozenn Morgat and published in … During that time, everyone around me – the police officers who came to interrogate prisoners, plus the guards, teachers and tutors – tried to make me believe the massive lie without which China could not have justified its re-education project: that Uighurs are terrorists, and thus that I, Gulbahar, as a Uighur who had been living in exile in France for 10 years, was a terrorist. For me, the prospect of turning in my passport held a terrible implication: I would never be able to return to Xinjiang. “Rescapee du Goulag Chinois (Survivor of the Chinese Gulag), written by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a French resident of Uighur origin who was imprisoned and sent to … March 7, 2021, 3:03 PM • 15 min read. After almost five months in the Karamay police cells, between interrogations and random acts of cruelty – at one stage I was chained to my bed for 20 days as punishment, though I never knew what for – I was told I would be going to “school”. Since 2017, more than a million Uyghurs have been deported there. No mattress. At first, I couldn’t make sense of what he was calling about. For three years, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a woman belonging to the Turkish-speaking and Muslim Uyghur minority, lived through hell in Chinese re-education camps. Apparently, the training was to last a fortnight. My daughters, 13 and 8 at the time, were given refugee status, as was their father. That was when I understood the method of the camps, the strategy being implemented: not to kill us in cold blood, but to make us slowly disappear. A survivor of China's re-education camps in Xinjiang recently revealed what happens there. Nothing like this had happened to any of the other Uighurs I knew in France. Rescapée du Goulag Chinois (Survivor of the Chinese Gulag), a book by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, an Uyghur detained by communist authorities as an alleged terrorist, details her 32-month ordeal of cold-iron shackles, interrogation and brainwashing sessions in one of China… She treated us like wayward citizens that the party had to re-educate. A survivor of China's re-education camps in Xinjiang recently revealed what happens there. “I think China made an error by coming after me and Uighurs living abroad,” she said. On my first day, female guards led me to a dormitory full of beds, mere planks of numbered wood. When a hand viciously pushed clippers across my skull, and other hands snatched away the tufts of hair that fell on my shoulders, I shut my eyes, blurred with tears, thinking my end was near, that I was being readied for the scaffold, the electric chair, drowning. It made my blood boil. Two hundred lives locked up until further notice. In the photo, she was smiling, a miniature East Turkestan flag in her hand, a flag the Chinese government had banned. A few bundled-up figures braved the elements, hugging the walls, but on the whole, there was not a soul to be seen. Hong Kong news – Independent &, non-profit. No sheets. This is an edited extract from Rescapée du Goulag Chinois (Survivor of the Chinese Gulag) by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, co-authored with Rozenn Morgat and published by Editions des Equateurs Posted in Culture , Diaspora , Politics Bookmark the permalink . I listened to the sentence as if it were nothing to do with me. A hundred times over I thought, when the footfalls of guards woke us in the night, that our time had come to be executed. The man called back two days later. My husband, Kerim, my daughters Gulhumar and Gulnigar – I denounced your “crimes”. A few days after I landed in China, on the morning of 30 November 2016, I went to the oil company office in Karamay to sign the vaunted documents related to my upcoming retirement. Haitiwaji joined him four years later. The book “Rescapee du Goulag Chinois” (Survivor of the Chinese Gulag), written by Gulbahar Haitiwaji, co-authored with Le Figaro journalist Rozenn Morgat and published by Editions des Equateurs can … Wave after wave of propaganda crashed down upon me, and as the months went by, I began to lose part of my sanity. In the “transformation-through-education” camps, life and death do not mean the same thing as they do elsewhere. Uighur community members in Turkey hold banners as they join a protest against China in Istanbul on Feb 26. In seeking asylum, my husband had made a clean break with the past. In November 2016, she bought a ticket to China, where she was detained and moved to a re-education camp for Uighurs. Gulbahar Haitiwaji knew that China would not be happy about her book describing nearly three years of imprisonment, brainwashing and harassment at the hands of the authorities simply because she is Uighur. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Blogger 0 (0) Gulbhar Haitiwaji knew that China would not be happy about her book describing Detainees were sent there to be brainwashed – and worse. To criticise our language. Our bodies, still warm and restless, struggled not to sway in the moist heat. Every Friday, we had an oral and written test. If she didn’t come round, a guard would yank her to her feet and slap her awake. Women like me, who emerged from the camps, are no longer who we once were. Then, equally suddenly, she was freed. Gulbahar Haitiwaji’s book “Survivor of the Chinese Gulag” has angered authorities in China. How can I begin to tell you what happened here? Since 1955, when communist China annexed Xinjiang as an “autonomous region”, we Uighurs have been seen as a thorn in the side of the Middle Kingdom. The Guardian published a piece adapted from a book called Survivors of the Chinese Gulag in which a woman named Gulbahar Haitiwaji describes two years spent in a re-education camp in Xinjiang. Why go all that way for such a trifle? There was static on the line; I had a hard time hearing him. An hour later, she came back with something she had written: her self-criticism. A table separated the policemen’s two chairs from my own. On the way, I prepared my answers to the questions I was likely to be asked. When a hand viciously pushed clippers across my skull, and other hands snatched away the tufts of hair that fell on my shoulders, I shut my eyes, blurred with tears, thinking my end was near,” writes Gulbahar Haitiwaji in her book, “Rescapée du Goulag Chinois” (“Survivor of the Chinese Gulag”), co-authored with Le Figaro journalist Rozenn Morgat and published in French on January 13 by … I remember that when it was over, I said, irritably: “Can I go now? Whether you’re politicised or not, such gatherings in France are above all a chance for the community to get together, much like birthdays, Eid and the spring festival of Nowruz. It was now June 2017, and I’d been here for three days. They locked us up like animals somewhere away from the rest of the world, out of time: in camps. In reality, they were sterilising us. The women who shared my cell said it would be like a normal school, with Han teachers. Our exhausted bodies moved through the space in unison, back and forth, side to side, corner to corner. The Uyghurs are a Turkish-speaking Muslim ethnic group who inhabit Xinjiang. While I tried to overlook the evidence of discrimination that followed us everywhere, with Kerim, it became an obsession. "I was never into politics, and I'm still not. HKFP is answerable only to readers, not shareholders, media tycoons or corporate umbrella groups. When I hung up, a shiver ran down my spine. Book by Uyghur Retiree … (PARIS) — Gulbahar Haitiwaji says when she was summoned back to China to sign documents relating to her retirement as an oil company engineer in November 2016, she could not have possibly known the fate that awaited her. Gulbahar Haitiwaji is Chinese and belongs to the Uyghur minority, a predominantly Muslim Turkic community in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. Xinjiang is a strategic corridor and far too valuable for China’s ruling Communist party to risk losing control of it. It was a nondescript rectangular classroom. But why, said Haitiwaji, would China need to “train” a university graduate living in France? ‘Survivor of the Chinese Gulag’: Uighur refugee in France recounts her ordeal msn.com | 2d After three harrowing years in Chinese re-education camps, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uighur woman who had been lured back to China from France only to be arrested, interrogated and abused, recounts her … In "Survivor of the Chinese Gulag", published on January 13 by Éditions des Équateurs, a testimonial book co-written with Figaro journalist Rozenn Morgat, this mother recounts the interrogations, torture, hunger, cramming and sterilizations forced. It contained nothing but stories of the powerful dynasties and their glorious conquests, and the great achievements of the Communist party. Quickly deprived of her passport on arrival, she went through a series of traumatising experiences, including prison, a re-education camp, interrogations, indoctrinations lasting 11 hours per day, and punishment from unforgiving guards for any “mistake” made. He tried first in Kazakhstan, but came back disillusioned after a year. I was free to go. Gulbahar Haitiwaji knew that China would not be happy about her book describing nearly three years of imprisonment, brainwashing and harassment at the hands of the authorities simply because she is Uighur. You can go to protest repression in Xinjiang, but also, as Gulhumar did, to see friends and catch up with the community of exiles. The guards terrified me. A small group objected, but I didn’t dare. Did she think anything at all? How had I not broken down already? As if that weren’t enough, we had to do an hour of extra study after dinner in the evening before going to bed. I don’t know if you will accept me, I don’t know if you’ll forgive me. I had lost all sense of time. Of men and women whose brains had been thoroughly washed – robots stripped of humanity, zealously enforcing orders, petty bureaucrats working under a system in which those who do not denounce others are themselves denounced, and those who do not punish others are themselves punished. It rolled right over our aching bodies. He ordered us to remain still. Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread, and sign up to the long read weekly email here. At her signal, we all stood up as one. The book, co-written with French journalist Rozenn Morgat and currently being translated into English, tells the story of her detention in her home region of Xinjiang, in northwestern China. We were panting like cattle. With help from the West we’ll get there,” she said. Haitiwaji and her husband and two children fled China in … Haitiwaji and her husband and two children fled China … I was assigned Bunk No 9. Glued to our chairs, we repeated our lessons like parrots. On the cover of the manual we were given was inscribed “re-education programme”. After initially denying the existence of the Xinjiang camps, China later defended them as vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism. A big metal shutter, perforated with tiny holes that let the light in, hid the outside world from us. ‘Right! Our work is governed by a Code of Ethics and we publish an Annual Report and Transparency Report every year. Chen Quanguo, who had made his reputation imposing draconian surveillance measures in Tibet, was named head of Xinjiang province. Thousands were sent to “schools” built almost overnight on the edge of desert settlements. The reek of paint from the spotless walls was a constant reminder. An hour later, she came back with something she had written: her self-criticism. Photograph: Emmanuelle Marchadour, 'Our souls are dead': how I survived a Chinese 're-education' camp for Uighurs, he man on the phone said he worked for the oil company, “In accounting, actually”. The man on the phone said he worked for the oil company, “In accounting, actually”. No sink. The girls went once or twice. Gulbahar Haitiwaji’s book “Survivor of the Chinese Gulag” has angered authorities in China. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I said. Good God, what had been done to make them that way? “I expected China to deny everything, which is why I gave the context of the confessions in the book — how they made me repeat the same things day in and day out. ... >> To read: "Survivor of the Chinese Gulag": a Uyghur survivor testifies. They locked us up like animals somewhere away from the rest of the world, out of time: in camps. Later, the Chinese Communist party would blame the entire ethnic group for these horrible acts, justifying its repressive policies by claiming that Uighur households were a hotbed of radical Islam and separatism. I wondered what she thought of all this. Giving up my Chinese nationality meant giving up on her, too. I had never heard of these mysterious schools, or the courses they offered. ‘Survivor of the Chinese Gulag’: Uighur refugee in France recounts her ordeal msn.com | 2d After three harrowing years in Chinese re-education camps, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uighur woman who had been lured back to China from France only to be arrested, interrogated and abused, recounts her ordeal in a just published book. Xinjiang is essential to President Xi Jinping’s great plan – that is, a peaceful Xinjiang, open for business, cleansed of its separatist tendencies and its ethnic tensions. Our slippers squeaked on linoleum. Why did that man want me to go back to Karamay? was held in Baijiantan for two years. I begged forgiveness from the Communist party for atrocities that neither you nor I committed. I regret everything I said that dishonoured you. One day, one of my classmates, a woman in her 60s, shut her eyes, surely from exhaustion or fear. After graduation, we were offered jobs as engineers at the oil company in Karamay. So instead, I’d applied for a residence permit that was renewable every 10 years. I was so far away, so alone, so exhausted and alienated, that I almost ended up believing it. In the job ads in the newspapers, there was often a little phrase in small print: No Uighurs. Beijing insisted last week that its treatment of ethnic minorities there and in Tibet “stood out as shining examples of China’s human rights progress”. Understood what people meant by “ brainwashing ” two days after looking into the possibility of letting my friend on. 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